The email triage and reply desk
This is one of the ten AI workflows in The Time Refund. You are reading it in full, reproduced exactly as it appears in the guide. The complete guide includes all ten recipes plus a fillable six-sheet workbook.
This recipe is about email. The other nine cover quotes, invoices, reminders and the rest of the admin you keep putting off, whatever kind of business you run.
Want these prompts to hand for tomorrow's inbox?
Email me this recipe as a PDFFree. One email with the download link, and nothing else unless you ask for it.
Most email time isn't typing, it's deciding. What does this person actually want, what's the polite version of no, how do I say "pay me" nicely for the third time. The assistant is faster than you at all of that, and with your pinned profile it already sounds like you.
- 1
For any email needing more than a one-line answer, paste it in under this prompt:
▸ Prompt Draft a reply to this email. Use my usual tone from my profile. Keep it under 120 words unless it genuinely needs more. If the sender is asking for something I should say no to, say no clearly but warmly and offer an alternative if one exists. If they're asking a question my profile answers, answer it directly. Flag anything you had to guess at [in square brackets] so I can check it. The email: [paste]
- 2
Read the draft. Fix the guesses in brackets. Send. The whole loop is under a minute, and the brackets rule matters: it converts "AI might invent my prices" into "AI shows me its homework".
- 3
For the recurring species of email (the price enquiry, the "are you available", the complaint), do it once well, then say:
▸ Prompt Save this as our template for [type of email]. Next time I paste one of these, use this structure and tone.Within your Project, it remembers. After two weeks you'll have a small library of replies-in-your-voice for every regular situation.
- 4
The triage half: on a heavy morning, paste the whole inbox skim in:
▸ Prompt Here are the subject lines and first lines of today's emails. Sort them into: needs me personally today, you can draft a reply, can wait, ignore/spam. One line on why for anything in the first pile. [paste]
Make it yours
Trades: add "if they're describing a job, list what site details are missing that I'd need before quoting, and draft the email that asks for them". Salon/clinic: add your booking link and let the draft carry it whenever someone asks for an appointment. Anyone with a shared inbox: the triage prompt is where the value is; run it twice a day at fixed times rather than living in the inbox.
Sending drafts unread: the day you stop reading before sending is the day it confidently offers a discount you don't do. The brackets rule and ten seconds of reading prevent all of it. Second failure: letting drafts get long. AI's instinct is three polite paragraphs where you'd write four lines; the word cap in the prompt is doing real work, keep it.
You've sent ten real replies drafted this way, editing less than a fifth of the text, and at least one regular email type has a saved template.
That's one of ten recipes. The full guide has all ten, plus the workbook.
I'm Iulius. WorkLighter is a one-person business, and I wrote The Time Refund for owners who want the admin handled without wading through AI hype. If you email, I'm the one who replies.
- All ten recipes, written out like the one you've just read
- A fillable six-sheet workbook
- A 30-day plan that spreads the setup so it never piles up
- £49. One payment, yours forever, updates included.
You've already read a whole recipe free. If the other nine don't look like they'll pay for themselves, reply to your receipt within 14 days and I'll refund you.